I have heard a lot of conversations and opinions about women in boxing or in MMA and other fighting arts. The argument goes that it is particularly dangerous for women because (if you can believe this shit), women are somehow not constituted to the fight game. Anyone with half a lick of sense will grant you that on average, and by a significant margin, men are far stronger and very significantly physically adept at than women in endeavors that require the combination of strength, power, and speed.

On the other hand, women who are so gifted have a much finer mastery of precision movement, range (contortions to which few bodies can be pushed) and motion.  Returning to the fight game, I think those who pooh pooh  women’s fighting ability or their right to pursue the sport are grossly misguided. Yours truly here had been involved in the fighting arts forever (a reference to most of my life) and still am. Along the way I have worked out with many women/girls.  From this one fighter, much respect, much regard and definitely a proponent for women in the fighting sports. In every sparring session, once you accounted for the size and strength, many of the girls were badasser than many of the guys. They wanted to take your head off. They tried to take your head off. They came close to taking your head off.
Here is one personal strange observation though that I will make about women in the fighting arts – their defense, particularly in a stand-up fight is the one thing I have always found lacking. When I am working out with the gals, I always have to remind them to defend themselves no matter how good they are otherwise. The flipside to that though tend to be that if they are good attackers, they are so all over your shit hat you have to be good and fast enough to notice the hole in their defense.

Am I a booster of women in the fighting arts, particularly in MMA? Absolutely. Am I suggesting that we should allow cross gender fights? Absolutely Not. Men against Men, Women against Women is what I am advocating. The promotions that are working with women fighters today, promoting women championships  are way ahead of the game and they win.

I love the fights. Boxing, MMA, Karate. You name it, I love the fights. I love the idea of a mano a mano contest, where one guy (or gal) looks the other in the eye and the other guy (or gal) sees the badassitude in that guy’s (or gal’s) eyes and the full intent to kick ass. And the guy (or gal) has to show their own badassitude to the opponent and take the responsibility, single handedly, to stop the opponent.

It is always an interesting experience for me when I watch different fighting arts back to back or even at the same time, flipping back and forth. This evening, I was watching boxing side by side with MMA, flipping back and forth. Different experiences, same thrill. The thrill of watching the 2 opponents go at it, understanding what each is doing, and seeing what they are trying to do work (or not) is a fascinating thing. Often, the fight plan (or lack of) gets much clearer much sooner in boxing than in MMA.

In MMA, you are often first waiting to see what tool set the fighter is working with (I have expressed thoughts about this in this blog before) and then figure out what the strategy is. In boxing, because the fighters are only limited to stand up, you are working with a smaller universe of possible strategies. If you have a good eye for the game, you will see a lot of things very clearly very fast. You will begin to get the sense for a fighter’s badassitude pretty quickly and discern what they are trying to do and how. And you tend to see hpwt the opponent is also doing to counter.

I come back to the question often debated – which fighting art provides a more accurate test of the skills involved? Boxing without question does a better job. But as to which art provides more excitement? My answer would be – give me 2 very good fighters, and no matter the fighting art, I am going to have a good time watching.

Mallam Mantari Lamal with Mainasara, a Hyena, Nigeria 2005

Peter Hugo photo series “Hyena People of Nigera” is a must see work about some real badass boys. Done back in 2005, he captured pictures of guys in Nigeria who walked around with hyenas and baboons for pets. Apparently, the guys who keep these badass pets are debt collectors. When they come to collect, they have their pets with them, I suspect ready to at least suggest that they could take the muzzle off for a minute. I also suspect their collection track record is spotless.

When I first saw this picture, there was this caption to it which read “next time you’re overcome with delusions of badassitude, remember this and say — no you are not tough. This is tough.” No argument here.

Brian Westbrook has been released by the Philadelphia Eagles. Brian Westbrook was and is a badass. He was good. He came to work every day, brought his lunch pail. He brought everything to work every night he came to work, put in a hard day’s work and left it all there. Boy, did he ever? There were no easy days at the office for Brian Westbrook. There were no days off. Either Brian was well and he came to work or he was so badly hurt that he had nothing to give. Let me say this again: Brian Westbrook was and is still a badass. One of the badassest badasses I have seen in a long time.

Brian was an amazing talent. An unassuming back. He never talked about what he was capable of. He just did it. For years it was just him and McNabb. And they got it done. They took the blame. The took Philadelphia’s shit. Because they understood the inanity of the rabid Eagles fans. But they still cared for the team they played for. One of the most enduring plays I ever saw Brian Westbrook make was the one where, rather than walk in for a touchdown, he stopped inches from the end zone and took a knee because that is what the team needed him to do to win the ball game. That kind of selflessness is so rare, it is a near freak occurrence when you see it.

I also remember that horrible game in New York when the Eagles were embarrassed so badly (I think the score might have been 58 for New York to maybe a couple for Eagles).  The Giants sacked McNabb like 11 or 15 times or some such. That was the game that made OC’s career. The Eagles offensive line were completely punkass in that game. It was like New York was writing their pay checks on that night. They had collectively forgetten the meaning of the word protection that night. Around the 10th time Umenyeoira hit McNabb (it must have felt like the 100th to Mcnabb), the punkass offensive line had completely given out. Not one – NOT ONE – was trying to help their quarterback up. Brian was injured. He was not dressed for the game. Brian walked on to the field. Brian helped his quarterback off the field. Brian understood. He got it. That is badassitude. That was one badass to another.

I understand the business of football I think. But it is sad to see Brian go. A badass. Brian, a  guy with badassitude to give.

Velasquez v Nogueira: Coming into this fight, I distinctly thought that Velasquez had the speed and overall fighting skill advantage. Granted, Nogueira has good submission skills and heavy enough hands (heck, any heavyweight should have heavy enough power to knock the other guy out). But I have never thought he combined his skills sufficiently to create a fearsome arsenal. I have made this point about MMA fighters in general in the past.

On the other hand, Velasquez seemed to me to have put together the combination of fighting skills much better even as he was faster. I thought he was badasser, with more badassitude. And it showed. He hit Nogueira with more stuff – kicks, punches – and with more variety and technique than Nogueira could muster. I am not surprised this fight ended in the first. It was a mismatch. Having said, despite his bluster, I do not think Velasquez has enough to take Lesnar. It is another conversation but to beat Lesnar, you have to have the ability to counter his explosiveness or the explosiveness to surprise him. He can be beat, Lesnar, but only by a fighter who truly understands martial arts and how to use all the arrows in one’s quiver.

Bisping v Silva: I will confess a little bias here. I like Bisping. He is a badass. There are not too many fighters with the kind of badassitude that he has and there are not too many fighters who try to put together the combination of skills such as he does. I was a little disappointed in this fight because I thought it should have been an easy fight for Michael. He should have moved a little better after the first round and anticipated those leg kicks better. And he fell victim to the oldest of cagy veteran tricks – he did not anticipate the end-of-round bursts that Wanderlei used to steal rounds.

Bisping, one could argue, won on volume while others would argue that Silva won on effectiveness. It was probably that flurry at the end of the fight that tipped the scales for Silva. Depending on your point of view, you could reasonably have concluded that Bisping was saved by the bell. A good case could be made either way and the judges saw it for Silva. I think that verdict was fair enough.

Stevenson v Sotiropoulos: This one was a surprise to me. At some point when the story of Stevenson is all told, it will be one of great but unfulfilled potential. Stevenson has always had the potential of being very highly explosive badass fighter. He has the potential ability to overwhelm opponents with very badass shock and awe. Yet for some reason, he just never seems to have enough badassitude to get him there.

I didn’t know very much about Sotiropoulos other than the fact that he had a pretty good record. He is a badass. Period. He imposed his badassitude on Stevenson all the way around. Standing up, he kicked Stevenson’s ass. On the ground, he dominated and this was the real big surprise to me because I thought Stevenson would own him on the ground. It was a unanimous decision and you will not find a single Stevenson fan willing to debate that decision.

Bader v Jardine – Jardine is a badass. I doubt that anyone would argue his badassitude. The result in this fight is testament to the truth that any big man will put another big man to sleep with a clean powerful shot. Bader caught Jardine with a clean shot and the fight ended. Enough said.

I will not dignify the Cro Cop fight with more than this: Perosh was a tomato can that was dispatched deservingly.

The game today between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Orlando Magic turned out to be a pretty good game – as it should have. A game with Lebron James, Dwight Howard, Vince Carter, Shaquille O’Neal should at a minimum be an interesting game. That is plenty of badassitude packed on the same court. Cleveland lost the game.

The Cavaliers, you can tell, want the NBA championship very, very, badly. One suspects that somewhere in the deep recess of their brain-trust, they have come to the conclusion that the only way they will hold on to Lebron James for the long haul is a) to surround him with enough talent to win the championship like now, and b) to surround him with the team that has the potential to win more championships a la Michael Jordan in Chicago. As we all know, once star players are associated with a championship team in one city, particularly a championship team team with the potential to win more championships, they tend to stay put. No one wants to mess with a good thing.

They went out, the Cavaliers, and brought in a lot of beef and badassitude down low (about 325 pounds of beef by way of Shaquille O’Neal) where last year in the playoffs, they were abused by the Magic. Then just for good measure, they added some more size and scoring by way of Antawn Jamison. Antawn is a badass – in a calm, do your job every day kind of way. As an aside, I always take an interest in following the careers of players traded from Washington. They generally tend to win championships after they have left Washington. At one time in fact, the Wizards had 4 starters in an NBA championship team – with the Detroit Pistons.

In the fourth quarter, James already had 30 points, Shaquille and Jamison were closing in on 20 each. You would think with that score line that they were winning the game but Orlando was kicking their ass. That Jameer Nelson is a badass. I don’t think there are too many better expressions of badassitude than a point guard who comes out up with the ball, pulls up at the three and hits the three. Pure stone-cold badassitude! And that Vince Carter does entertain when he get going. When this game is done though, one wonders what else the Cavs need. You look at them on paper and you think they should have a clear path to the championship. Maybe they still will if they pick it up some more in the playoffs.

They have the personnel. Do they have enough badassitude?

I was recently engaged in an argument with a guy who knows quite a bit about basketball. The subject was this – between Lebron James or Kobe Bryant, who has more basketball badassitude. There is no doubt both guys are badass. Very, very badass. But at the height of their game, who would you give the edge? Who is the badasser badass?

It is easy to take the short route in this equation and use championships as the tie breaker. In that case, you would easily give it to Kobe. Or, you could opt for overall statistics and, on the basis of triple doubles and such, it seems to me you would go with Lebron. Or you could argue age or youth for that matter, and future upside, and again that would go to Lebron. But that would be a punkass approach to measuring badassitude.

These two guys have talent to spare. Heck, Kobe scored 80 points in a game that he finished on the bench. On the bench folks. Kobe was sitting on the bench, the game was still being played and he already had 80 points!!! Now if that is not badassitude, I do not know what is. For Lebron, the thing that totally laid bare his unadulterated badassitude for me did not even happen during a game (we see enough of those anyway). He was on 60 minutes or some such show talking to (Steve Croft?). He tells the guy he can turn his back and make a shot from way over there. Just like that, he turns around, shoots the ball – backward. Back-freaking-ward!!! And …. Swoosh!! Nothing but net. If that is not pure badassitude, I don’t know what is.

But I have watched both these guys for a while. I have watched them work when the game was on the line. When one of these guys absolutely has to get the game won. I have also watched basketball for a long time. There is killer instinct that comes out of a badass when he is the only one that everyone is counting on to deliver. No disrespect to Lebron cause I love the guy, but in those moments when the only thing on deck is to do everything and anything to win, Kobe is badasser. But who knows, by the end of this season, I might change my mind.

I was a moment ago, pondering some of positively maddening and mind bending stuff I had seen at the Winter Olympics. Watching the men’s mogul the other day, it occurred to me that it looked like a pretty badass event. In reminded me of motor cross (but on skis). Very few of us regardless conditioning, could take that beating at that speed, hitting those bumps and not lose control. And then, find time for some aerobatics. Clearly the guys are badass. But then for some reason the people who run this sport thought it made sense (don’t ask me how) to add completely subjective scores to it, essentially style points which when it was all said and done, took all the badassitude out of an potentially badass effort. I watched this one guy from France totally obliterate everyone else’s time and yet he was scored 6th overall. Come on!! In my book you come in first, you win.

But the silliness in mogul has nothing on the near inanity in figure skating. First, they should be a “guy dress code” rule in that sport. Guys just should not be allowed out in public, much less on worldwide TV dressed like that. In many sports, taking a spill is not the end of the world. In the fight game you get your ass kicked pretty good, knocked down, pick yourself up and win the fight. That is normal. In a race, you might fall and depending on how much further you have to go, pick yourself up kick into overdrive and give yourself a chance to win. But when you are competing and being judged on grace, flow and agility, falling on your ass should pretty much knock you out of the running. But, not in this sport! In fact, there are times when it seemed like one needed a good tumble to get a better score. Total punkass.

Having said all that though, I must admit that the Chinese couple that won the gold was, to the extent that it is possible to be a figure skating badass, pretty badass. Even to my untrained eye, they were flawless. And it helped a lot that they did not fall on their asses or anything else for that matter. Grudgingly I will concede a level of badassitude to China’s Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo the gold medal winning pair in figure skating.

So I get up this morning to a note from one of my boys soliciting my opinion on the slam dunk contest from last night. I did not watch the slam dunk contest because, thankfully as it turned out, I was doing and watching other, more interesting things. That said, I decided to check it out at the NBA site where the viewing experience is more merciful having been compressed into a 3 and a half minute video of just the dunks.

I watched the contest, waited, got to the end of the video and ran it back. I wanted to be sure that I had not missed something. Sadly, I hadn’t. The contest sucked. It was a weak punkass attempt at entertainment. And it failed. Once upon a time, we waited with bated breath for the slam dunk contest. Those of us who saw its early incarnation have memories of certain dunks etched deep. Spud Webb, Michael Jordan, Dominique Wilkins, Kenny Sky Walker, Dee Brown. Remember Cedric Ceballos with the blindfold? Those guys were badass. Their dunks were a statement in badassitude.

Watching last night’s, and I was watching minus the mind numbing jibber jabber, commercials and all the accompanying bullshit that TV devised in what could only have been intended to impose pain on  viewers, it distinctly felt like we were watching a once good idea in its last throes. The slam dunk contest is dying. The reason it is dying is real simple – the guys with the best dunks are not in it. There is no incentive for them to be in it. If the best guys were in it, Lebron, Kobe, Howard, Carter would have been dunking last night. The only way it can survive will be for the NBA to make the contest attractive for the big names.

One hopes they will otherwise the slow match towards the demise of the slam dunk contest might just have turned into a sprint after last night.

I like to make jokes about Apollo Ohno sometimes (who doesn’t? – from the name to what he does for a living, it’s like a pitch just hanging there for the hitter to swing for the bleachers). But we tease because we appreciate pure badassitude.

I just watched the short track heat. Apollo was the last off the blocks, took his time and just hung out in last position for 7 of the 11 laps. No pressure, it looked like, no sweat, no problem. Then his badassitude kicked in and he decided that it was time to kick some ass. Unlike his teammate Malone, his did not try to take the easy route and cut inside. He cut wide. Outside.  A few quick steps and it was over.

Watching the semifinal, Apollo did not take much of a chance this time. Around the 4th lap, he started to move up, made a badass move to work for the lead. He almost screwed up. The Korean kids – Lee Jung-su and  Lee Ho Suk are not half bad. Definitely ontenders.
Here come the finals .

UPDATE: Sometimes, badassitude works best with a little dose of luck. Apollo was out of the medal, and as luck would have it, the 2 Koreans knock each other out of the bronze and silver, to give the Americans the medals.